I had the 645D and its a really good camera. Loved using it. Its possibly the most sorted out medium format SLR and the only fully integrated and weather sealed medium format digital camera made today. There should be more like it!

I think I see the price reduction in Sweden, here it costs €5500+VAT today, which is about $7200. A Canon 1DX costs €5200, ie almost the same... so it's nice that medium format is becoming this affordable, although it's a small sensor for being medium format.

However for us that like tech cameras it would be nice if Pentax would make a digital back... which of course won't happen . The IQ140 is still at €15000+VAT...

All sensors are "small" for being "medium format." 6x4.5 was often thought not much bigger than 35mm and was thought of as the "amateur" format. The 33x44 is a 1.26 crop factor from 6x4.5. The 22MP and 30MP sensors are 1.16 crop factors (I know Phase list them as 1.1, but here marketing is trumping math). Not a a lot of difference.

All sensors are "small" for being "medium format." 6x4.5 was often thought not much bigger than 35mm and was thought of as the "amateur" format. The 33x44 is a 1.26 crop factor from 6x4.5. The 22MP and 30MP sensors are 1.16 crop factors (I know Phase list them as 1.1, but here marketing is trumping math). Not a a lot of difference.

And then 1.27 down to 36x24... not a lot of difference there either . Quite small steps between the crops. I think Phase One compares their ~54x41mm "full-frame" (sort of) with P45+ ~49x37, that is about 1.1.

As long as image quality is good I don't care about format size though. Oh well, there's the ancient optical finders still (and ground glass for me!) and then it's nice to have every mm one can get... I thought the 48x36/49x37 format was extremely well balanced with the tech cam lenses, but unfortunately it's a bit too close to 54x41mm so I guess it had to go.

As long as image quality is good I don't care about format size though.

Very true. As an extreme example, at base ISO a Nikon V2 is very close in image quality to the original Canon 1Ds according to DxO mark, with the advantage of a lot more DoF which makes it a better landscape camera... The 1Ds was said to rival medium format film when released.

There is really little reason to demand larger sensors nowadays besides higher resolution... But A1 prints from a 645D are already freaking amazing for fine art applications... without even speaking of stitching.

Very true. As an extreme example, at base ISO a Nikon V2 is very close in image quality to the original Canon 1Ds according to DxO mark, with the advantage of a lot more DoF which makes it a better landscape camera... The 1Ds was said to rival medium format film when released.

There is really little reason to demand larger sensors nowadays besides higher resolution... But A1 prints from a 645D are already freaking amazing for fine art applications... without even speaking of stitching.

Cheers,Bernard

I think there is plenty of demand for physically larger sensors than 645. Whether the market will pay for them in enough quantity remains to be seen.

**On a side note - Capture Integration is now a fully authorized Pentax dealer. We are expecting our 645D demo unit at our Atlanta office location sometime next week.

has anyone actually used the pentax tethering software? lots of info about it on the web but the only user experience i can find mentions 15second transfer time to a watched folder in C1 which is a bit of a joke for a professional camera.

Hi! I had the 645D for a few weeks and loved working with the camera. I had an eyeFi card on one of the slots and it worked perfectly transferring the small JPGs to my iPad directly without my laptop. It was awesome. Worked just like in my 5D3.

The camera is the best medium format DSLR as a camera body. Its fully weather sealed and the sensor cleaning works. I basically could use the camera just like I did my Canon DSLRs. Iso 1600 was usable and long exposures (I tried up to 30 sec) were very clean. Af was spot on and Low iso image quality WHIPS any Canon DSLR silly. It has a touch less highlight recovery potential but its close and the shadow recovery is MUCH deeper.

The only weakness in the system are the lenses. The 25mm is super expensive (never tried it) but supposedly good. The 35mm FA (AF) is a so so lens (the 35mm A (Manual Focus) is better, and most lenses are very bad wide open but very good at f11-f16. I stuck to the f8-f16 range with f11 being the most used.

I did a few jobs with it and decided to sell it in favor of a phase back and tech camera setup. I wanted to keep it though and might buy one again in the future. If Pentax makes another version of this camera its gonna be a game changer for sure. That is if Canon doesnt release its 1DXS first. Even so the larger format does have a different look to it although it would be more so if there was some good fast glass to use it with.